Weather Woes

January 19, 2011

I decided to combine all of the ways you can donate to help Rio flood victims into a single post, especially because the Brazil Foundation announced today that they will be accepting online donations on behalf of two Rio organizations working to help victims, including VivaRio and Instituto da Criança. The death toll is currently at 744 and growing, and nearly 14,000 people are temporarily homeless.

January 18, 2011

Unfortunately, the news coming out of Rio isn't great. For those unfamiliar with local geography, the affected region is in the mountains of Rio state, around an hour outside of the state capital. Despite its proximity to Brazil's second largest city, recovery efforts are difficult.

As of Monday night, the death toll has reached 672 and is expected to climb as rescuers start digging communities out from the mud. Thousands of people lost their homes, and over 200 people are still missing. In one of the worst affected towns, reports were circulating that local vendors had jacked up the prices of basic goods, like charging R$40 for 20 liters of water, R$10 for a package of ramen noodles, and R$20 for a broom. Another report claimed that the local Red Cross in Teresópolis had mobilized staff, volunteers, doctors, and nurses to provide medical aid to victims, but were forbidden to continue operating, since the local government claimed it was in charge of relief efforts in conjunction with a local organization. For an upclose perspective in English, read this post from an American blogger in Nova Friburgo described her harrowing experience with the floods.

While global warming may be at play, flooding happens in Rio every year, though this year was the worst in decades. However, since local politics tend to be reactive, money is promised after the fact and politicians who visit affected areas try to act like the heroes, making for convenient PR opportunities of the concerned, supposedly compassionate leaders bringing aid and comfort to destitute victims. In addition, prevention efforts have been minimal, and people continue to move to and inhabit high-risk areas. As this enlightening TIME article describes:

"State governments have been equally remiss, while federal officials, when they do pay attention to the issue — money allocated to build a disaster-management center has laid untouched for two years, according to Castello Branco — have sometimes used disaster money for political purposes. More than half of last year's federal disaster-prevention funds went to Bahia state, where the minister in charge of distributing cash was running for governor, Castello Branco says."

But it's a bit more difficult if you're outside of Brazil. Fellow blogger Alex Castro helped set up a site last year to help facilitate information about the floods and how to help. But even there, donations from afar can only be made through bank deposits (a reader pointed out you can make deposits online through Xoom, though at least Americans are more accustomed to direct online donations). Even the local businesses only seem to offer a phone number to call for more information about making donations; only NGOs have pertinent information available online.

Philanthropy is still developing in Brazil,in part because the government is often viewed as the institution responsible for solving the problems of the poor and those who cannot help themselves. But NGOs have also flourished in recent years and have been gaining more clout, despite some distrust due to scandals of embezzlement or fraud. Distrust is another issue that has hampered online banking and finance; Brazilians are especially wary, and are fearful of getting ripped off or having their financial information stolen.

Setting up online donations is theoretically one of the easiest ways to get quick funding, especially during natural disasters. After the Haiti earthquake, people from all over the world were able to help local organizations with a few clicks or even sending text messages, and while things are arguably still a total mess there, it was an easy way to send aid to people on the ground.

So I tried looking at some of the organizations working in the Região Serrana and Rio. The local Red Cross doesn't seem to let you make donations online, nor does Rio NGO Viva Rio. So far, the only local organization I found working in the area that lets you donate online is CARE Brasil.

For those of us in the US, you can donate to Red Cross International or CARE International. Still, I wish there was a more direct way. Any volunteers to set up a website to funnel online donations to Viva Rio and other local organizations?

April 07, 2010

I found some more videos of the flooding in Rio. The death count is now up to 145. The first video is of kids trapped at school overnight, and the second is of a beach town close to the city. The third one is pretty self explanatory.

April 06, 2010

Flooding isn't out of the ordinary for parts of Brazil, but the last 24 hours have been particularly brutal, killing 96 people, destroying homes, and leaving people stranded in schools, at work, and even buses on the highway. Supposedly, it's the worst storm in Rio in 44 years, bringing record levels of rain in a very short period of time.

When Eli first mentioned to me that it was bad, I figured it was yet another one of those flash floods where the streets fill with water and go down after a few hours, like the time I convinced myself I would be stranded in a bus in Centro, and thankfully waded onto higher ground and got to the Metro. Plus, there has been terrible flooding in the past six months, both in Rio's Angra region and in Sao Paulo.

It wasn't until I saw the photos that my stomach dropped and I realize how bad things really were.

School was canceled, and people were warned not to risk going to work. Mudslides destroyed homes, and the water damage remains to be seen. Yet, despite the tragedy, Cariocas are resilient as always, and used humor to cope, even on Twitter and on video.

My heart goes out to everyone there, and here's to hoping the water recedes quickly and that everything can get back to normal.

Were you in Rio during the flood? How did you spend the worst of the storm?

February 04, 2010

May 03, 2009

There was a huge rainstorm two weeks ago, and we spotted this hole from our apartment. Eli went down to investigate, and he found sewage spewing from the sand on the beach (not a manhole or a sewer--the actual sand). The beach was covered in sewage. Have a look: